civilized ku # 873 ~ on idiocracies and confederacies of dunces, pt I
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 12:46PM 
It's not a damned PARK ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenI'm feeling a bit under the weather and that might be the reason I am feeling particularly cranky. Whatever the reason, my cranky quotient was dialed up by a couple encounters I have had in the last 24 hours - encounters that really are just the tip on the iceberg of stupidity which is afloat on an ocean of morons who have bobbed up to the surface from the murky depths of ignorance.
Encounter/exhibit # 1 was with the bumper sticker pictured in this entry. As coincidence would have it, 2 weeks ago an amiable gentleman from the Hudson River Valley drove up to Au Sable Forks to view my The Forks ~ there's no place like home exhibit. While viewing the exhibit, he inquired as to why, on this blog, I capitalized the word "PARK" in my picture descriptions. In answer, I told him I did so in response to an idiotic bumper sticker I had seen a few years ago in the Central Adirondacks - as it turns out, the very same sticker I encountered yesterday, right here in Au Sable Forks.
The bumper sticker proclaims that "It's (the Adirondacks) is not a damned PARK". That statement, taken at questionable word use face value, is correct - to my knowledge, the Adirondacks has not been damned, which is to say that the Adirondacks have not been condemned or doomed to any form of eternal punishment that I am aware of of.
Quite the opposite - many, most likely most, Adirondack residents ("It's our HOME / It's where we WORK") and visitors, in fact, consider "it" to be an earthly manifestation of Heaven / Nirvana / Paradise or the like. Some may even believe "it" to be the "blessed" Adirondacks.
Nevertheless, and completely independent of how one feels about "it", the Adirondacks is, in fact and in deed, a PARK.
"It" has been a PARK - larger than the State of Vermont (and 4 other states), or of Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Glacier, and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks combined - since 1892 (that's about 120 years for the PARK idea to sink in or penetrate some rather thick skulls). The state-owned/public lands within the PARK (roughly 1/2 and growing) have been protected, by an 1894 amendment to the State Constitution, as "forever wild". Quite apparently there is a whole confederacy of dunces who have missed or, more likely, simply dismissed this not so subtle and inconvenient truth/fact.
As a resident of the PARK, I feel both lucky and privileged. I get to live in a PARK, a PARK in which I have access to approximately 3 million acres of public land. A PARK that has more than 3,000 lakes, 30,000 miles (48,000 km) of streams and rivers, and over 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of hiking trails. It is also a PARK that will never be overrun buy un-restrained commercial interests.
That is, of course, unless ignorant fools and special interest groups (primarily real estate developers) convince an ever increasingly gullible population*, aka - the idiocracy, that "it" is not a damned PARK. Fortunately, there is a very daunting NYS Constitutional hurdle to get past** in order for any action to be taken on that mistaken / ignorant delusion.
All of that said and in defiance of incontrovertible facts, there is, nevertheless, an alarming and ever-increasing number of gullible and misinformed dunces who are queuing up to be active participants in the dumbing down of America.
*Obama's a non-American born Socialist whose death panels will kill grandma, teachers / unions are destroying America, government is not the solution, government is the problem, corporations are people, tax cuts for the wealthy will create jobs and help the economy grow, etc.
**amending/removing/adding an amendment to the NYS Constitution requires approval by 2 separate, successive legislative sessions (with a general election in between). Then the amendment goes to the voters and must be approved by a majority before becoming part of the constitution.
A Constitutional Convention may also be convened but only if a majority of NYS voters approve of it (they rejected the last 2 - 1977, 1997 - CC proposals). Even if voters allowed a CC, any results from it must also be approved by a majority of NYS voters.
Reader Comments (3)
What about the Jay newsletter things i have sent you over the past few days (you know, the ones you have ignored) where locals are writing about how they value the protected park they live in?
Mencken had a good term for these folks (as you may already know) - the "booboisie".
Yes, some of our region is a Park, but not all of it is state owned...and therefore there is often confusion from your beloved tourons asking if they can bring their pet and what time the Park closes...I like that sticker BTW - especially because it got a rise out of you!